In response to a seek request to play a media item from a particular position, some streaming technologies identify a portion of the media item that is needed to stream the media item from the particular position. For example, metadata that is associated with a container file for the media item is parsed to identify this portion of the media item that is needed. Locating this metadata (e.g., using multiple HTTP range requests to determine which section of the container file includes this metadata), downloading this metadata, and then parsing this metadata are time consuming, cumbersome, and often inefficient tasks that cause streaming of the media item to be delayed and/or cause delays or excessing loading times when responding to seek requests (or initiating playback of a new media item). These drawbacks may interrupt a user's viewing/listening experience while streaming media content and place excessive computational demands on the device controlling playback.